The Art of recording the addition of columns of figures is old in
principle, but not in practice. Many attempts to make a machine that
would record legibly under all conditions failed. These attempts have
been pointed out from time to time as the first invention of the
recording-adding machine, especially by those desirous of claiming the
laurels.
[Sidenote: _First attempt to record arithmetical computation_]
The first attempt at arithmetical recording for which a patent was
issued, was made by E. D. Barbour in 1872 (see illustration on opposite
page).
E. D. Barbour has also the honor of being the first inventor to apply
Napier’s principle to mechanism intended to automatically register
the result of multiplying a number having several ordinal places by a
single digit without mentally adding together the overlapping figures
resulting from direct multiplication. He patented this machine in 1872
just prior to the issue of his arithmetical recorder patent. (See page
181.)